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Cops Charged in 6-year-old Boy Shooting; Walkouts Planned on Missouri Campus Today; Two Americans Gunned Down in Jordan; GOP Rivals Gear Up for Tomorrow's Debate; Two Americans Gunned Down in Jordan; Obama and Netanyahu to Meet at the White House; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 09, 2015 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:00:01] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The officers are accused of shooting first grader Jeremy Mardis as they chased his father's car. Jeremy will be buried later this afternoon. His father was also shot. He remains in serious condition in the hospital.

CNN's Nick Valencia is in Marksville, Louisiana, with more. Good morning, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Tuesday marks one week to the day that the 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis, that special needs autistic child, was shot and killed by police. And here in Marksville, Louisiana, two very big questions remain outstanding. One is why the -- why the marshals would pursue the father driving in that car. And the second is why they would use lethal force.

Chris Few, the father of that 6-year-old was found to be unarmed. Even still police officers unloaded at least 18 rounds from two different guns and they hit that little boy five times in the head and chest. He was strapped in the front seat.

Now we also are learning some more information from a source close to the investigation, which makes this case even more bizarre. One of the things we're being told is that Norris Greenhouse, one of the marshals charged with the death of that 6-year-old, actually knew the victims prior to the shooting. How well he knew Chris Few, the father, or the extent of the relationship is a big part of the investigation for the Louisiana state police. Earlier the head of the state police spoke about the connection between the two.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. MICHAEL EDMONSON, HEAD OF LOUISIANA STATE POLICE: Well, you're dealing with a small town like this. And by the way, this is a good town. My grandfather was born and raised -- grandmother was born and raised in Marksville. So these are good people. So it's a small town. Everyone knows everyone. Certainly we heard the same things. We believe they've had some type of relationship where they met each other, knew each other. Certainly as this progresses, we'll certainly find out more and more information. But I think in a town like this, everyone knows each other. And certainly we heard that here. A lot of rumors but like I said, we've got to deal in facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: These two officers are still being held in the Avoyelles Parish Detention Center here behind me, expected to make their first court appearance later today. The details of which are still being worked out, we're told.

We're also looking to the history of these officers. And according to local media reports, at least one of the officers has a very troubled history. Derek Stafford, 32 years old, has been indicted in the past on two counts of aggravated rape back in 2011. A year later that -- those cases were dismissed. And we've been looking into both -- both officers' history. We've not been able to confirm either one of them has been convicted of a crime.

But the funeral, as you mentioned, Carol, is expected to be held later this morning for that 6-year-old in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where the family is right now -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And no one has any idea why these officers were chasing this car?

VALENCIA: Well, that's -- you know, that's a big question here. Very early on in the investigation the marshal's office here in Marksville said that Chris Few had a warrant out for his arrest. That has since been batted down in the days after the shooting. Louisiana State Police saying there was no active warrants. Much is being made about the connection between Greenhouse and Few. And as I mentioned, the state police are looking into that connection if that could have led or caused or been a part of this shooting altogether -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Valencia reporting live from Louisiana this morning.

Tensions at a boiling point at the University of Missouri where not only students but now professors are being urged to walk out of the classroom today. Hundreds of students protested over the weekend over what they say has been an inadequate response by the school to racist incidents happening around campus.

Dozens of football players also refusing to practice or play until university president Tim Wolfe steps down. Now a group of professors threatening to walk out, too, until something is done. One student has even gone on a hunger strike, demanding action. He talked with CNN's Poppy Harlow last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN BUTLER, STUDENT ON HUNGER STRIKE: So I'm in this because it's that serious. We're dealing with humanity here. And at this point we can't afford to continue to work with individuals who just don't care for their constituents. And when you see what's happening on campus now, with the racial incidents, with the graduate health insurance and everything else that's going on, we just have leadership that doesn't care about its student body.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: CNN's Polo Sandoval joins me now with more on this.

So specifically, tell us what these incidents entailed. What were they? What are they upset about?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Carol, during my conversation with Jonathan Butler yesterday he laid out a couple of them. There is a really very disturbing one recently, which was a swastika that was actually painted on one of the dorm rooms. There is also what they say is a repeated open use of several racial slurs on campus as well. And as well as several other incidents. In fact, you just spoke to one of the members there of the faculty a few moments ago and she mentioned that Ferguson is only 100 miles away from there.

So many of the students that make up the student body there are members of that community. They have seen these kinds of civil movements before. But what's interesting here, it started as a student movement and now you have faculty members. Now you have the head coach of the football players that refused to play, they're now coming together, trying to lead to change.

[10:05:01] I want to read a portion of a statement that was actually put out by members of the faculty a few moments ago. In fact specifically, Dr. Nicole Monnier, who you spoke with. You see here that she says, quote, "We the concerned faculty of the University of Missouri stand in solidarity with the Mizzou student activists who are advocating for racial justice on our campus and we urge all MU faculty to demonstrate their support by walking out on Monday, November 9th, and Tuesday, November 10th, along with other allies such as the Forum on Graduate Rights."

We know that university officials are now meeting, Carol, to try to find out really what the solution is here. But what's interesting is the university president, Tim Wolfe, has actually acknowledged, yes, there is racism on this campus, which is very interesting here because not every day that the head of a major university actually acknowledges something like that.

COSTELLO: Like the university system. Let's talk about the football players for just a second. And I don't know if we have a picture of them, but they have joined arms to unite with the other students protesting on campus. If they don't play football next weekend, right, the university has to, what, pay something like $1 million to Brigham Young who they're supposed to play, right?

SANDOVAL: You're talking about an Athletic Department that brought in about at least $83 million in revenue last year. Football is a way of life for the students there at Mizzou. It's obviously an institution. And so obviously a lot of people want to see them take the field. But as you see them there and as you mentioned very appropriately, Carol, they are standing together. Mainly with the support from their head coach, Gary Pinkel.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So they're hitting the university where it really hurts and perhaps that's what prompted the university president to pony up with a statement. Who knows.

SANDOVAL: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Right? That's what they're hoping anyway. Polo Sandoval, thanks so much.

SANDOVAL: You bet.

COSTELLO: Also in about 20 minutes I'm going to talk to one of the professors who organized this morning's walkout. That will happen in just 20 minutes here in the NEWSROOM.

We're also learning new information about a deadly shooting in Jordan that killed two Americans. Here's what we know right now. The incident happened at a special ops training center outside the capital city of Amman. A U.S. official telling CNN the gunman was a Jordanian police officer who have been fired from his job. A South African contractor was also killed during the incident and at least two other Americans were wounded.

Let's head to London and Phil Black, he's got more on this. Hi, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, the death toll from this particular event is now five in total. Four victims, two Americans, as you touched on, a South African and a Jordanian, all civilian contractors at this police training center, and the shooter himself, who was, we're told, until recently, a trainer, a police trainer with the rank of captain at this particular shooting center.

So, yes, as U.S. officials say, this man was recently fired. Jordanian government officials say they believe he was acting because of personal motivations which supports the theory of a personal grievance. They don't believe he's connected to some sort of organization, notably some sort of Islamist organization. But there's certainly a remaining concern that there could be that connection because of the date.

It is the 10th anniversary of what is often known as Jordan's 9/11, coordinated suicide terror attacks at three hotels in the capital Amman that killed around 60 people. That was 10 years ago today. So while that event has been commemorated in Jordan, this shooter was going on his rampage. And as I say, four people have been killed as a result of his actions so far -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Black reporting live from London, thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Ben Carson launches a fresh round of attacks on the media. Will his battle with reporters have an impact on tomorrow's debate?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:12:53] COSTELLO: Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson lashing out just one day before he takes center stage at the GOP debate. Carson unleashing a new wave of attacks against not Donald Trump but the media. Accusing the press of a political hit job after questions about his past surfaced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The kind of investigations that were done, you know, talking to the wrong people, not going to Wilson Junior High School where the lock incident occurred, but talking to other people and saying, see? I mean, that's just stupid. And if our media is no better at investigating than that, it's sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: But a close aide to Carson says he thinks questions about Carson's past are fair game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, CARSON BUSINESS MANAGER: I think it's a very good thing that Dr. Carson is being vetted. That Dr. Carson is being tested. He needs to be toughened. He needs to know exactly what is expected because this right now is Central Park. A walk in the park. It's going to become more intense, and Dr. Carson has to show that he has the fortitude, he has the courage and the character to withstand all the scrutiny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So is this important or is it a tempest in a teapot? Let's check in with Suzanne Malveaux. She's been covering the story. Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, it's pretty clear over the weekend that all the GOP candidates, they want to get some things out before tomorrow's Republican debate in Milwaukee. So obviously for Dr. Carson it is about going from defense to offense, regarding stories about his past. So they want to deal with this and get it done.

For Rubio, it's providing more information about his finances, and for Trump, well, it's about getting in those digs at both of them, hoping that their troubles will stick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARSON: The burden of proof is not going to be on me to corroborate everything that I've ever talked about in my life.

MALVEAUX (voice-over): Over the weekend, Dr. Ben Carson's attacks on the media intensifying. The GOP presidential contender unleashing a firestorm of verbal attacks on reporters who've challenged his stories about his past.

CARSON: Show me somebody, even from your business, the media, who is 100 percent accurate at everything that they say.

"Well, you said this when you were in kindergarten." Give me a break.

[10:15:02] MALVEAUX: Recent reports in "Politico" and "The Wall Street Journal," calling into question aspects of Carson's life story published in his book. "Politico" wrote that Carson's campaign changed their version of a story about receiving a full scholarship from West Point. The military academy doesn't charge tuition.

In response, Carson's campaign clarified that he never applied nor was granted admission to West Point.

CARSON: I said it was offered. I didn't say I received it.

MALVEAUX: Carson saying he's facing harsher scrutiny than any other presidential candidate because he's seen as a threat.

CARSON: I have never seen this before. And many other people who are politically experienced tell me they've never seen it before either.

MALVEAUX: GOP rival Donald Trump calling it the beginning of the end of Carson's campaign.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you say, though, hitting your mother over the head with a hammer, when you're talk about hitting a friend in the face with a lock, a padlock, and you know, you talk about stabbing someone, that's a serious statement when you say you have a pathological disease. Because as I understand it, you can't really cure it.

Look at this guy.

MALVEAUX: Meanwhile, Trump was all laughs as host of "Saturday Night Live."

TRUMP: Enrique.

BECK BENNETT, CAST MEMBER, NBC'S "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": I brought you the check for the wall.

TRUMP: That's so wonderful.

MALVEAUX: Garnering the highest ratings the show's had in years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And "SNL" didn't pull any punches. The cast tackled most of the criticisms regarding Trump including accusations of racism, his immigration policies and questions around President Obama's birth certificate.

And Carol, we also learned in Jon Meacham's new biography of George H. W. Bush that Trump was interested in the VP slot. Trump said on "STATE OF THE UNION" this weekend, clarifying that it was the other way around. That the senior adviser Lee Atwater came to him and said it would be great, and didn't go further than that. Gives you lots to think about, huh, Carol?

COSTELLO: It does, as always. Suzanne Malveaux, many thanks.

All right. Let's talk some more about this with CNN's senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, he's also the editorial director for "The National Journal."

Thanks, Ron, for being here.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: So is Donald Trump right? Will this sink Ben Carson?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, look, I think this has the potential to severely constrain Ben Carson. And Carson is unusually vulnerable to these kinds of questions because his candidacy fundamentally is his biography. You know, that there hasn't been a lot of policy. And as you saw in that last debate, that he had trouble really articulating the policies even that he has put out. I think the core of his appeal is his story of personal redemption, which is particularly resonated with evangelical Christians or a big part of the Iowa caucus and many other states, particularly in the south as you go forward.

I don't think this is going to dislodge those voters from him. But as these doubts persist, I think they could combine with the questions about his kind of command of policy to limit his appeal potentially that universe, and that's enough to make a splash but not enough to win a Republican nomination.

COSTELLO: OK. So what do you make of this? So Ben Carson over the weekend was just chastising the media, yet his business manager says this morning that the vetting of Carson is a good thing. What is that about?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. It's hard to say exactly why they're diverging, but I think the business -- you know, he's right, fundamentally. I mean, the modern presidency exists under a microscope that was unimaginable even 20 years ago. And certainly as you move deeper into the primaries, if you're one of the finalists in the primaries, much less the general election nominee, you are going to be facing scrutiny on every aspect of your public and in many aspects of your private life. So in that sense this is a -- kind of a foreshadowing of what could be expected if he does well.

And as I said, this is a candidacy that is -- you know, especially or even uniquely about biography. The core of his appeal, I think, is his personal story, which is a very powerful one. And I think it is inevitable that when that is the grounding of the campaign, that it is going to face, you know, detailed examination.

COSTELLO: OK. So tomorrow night on the debate stage, if I were Ben Carson, perhaps, I would present evidence that all of the stories that he's told in his many books are true. I would say, well, here's the family member that I attacked with that knife, right? And here's the -- some documentation from Yale that there really was a class and I was really given $10 by this professor to do the right thing.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, he may or may not have that at his fingertips. You just saw over the weekend his comments to the "New York Times" about the West Point issue were probably a more accurate description. He kind of described it in a much more informal way as someone saying, well, hey, you're the kind of person we want as opposed to what he's been saying for years about receiving a specific kind of offer.

You know, he could do that. I think it's more likely that he will attack the media if it comes up at all. Don't forget, I mean, FOX from -- you know, from the moment that the CNBC debate ended, the FOX Business Channel basically has been advertising, we're going to ask the real economic questions. We're not going to get caught up in the kind of personal controversies and disputes among the candidates, so I'm guessing this is not central to the FOX debate.

I mean, the whole way they've been presenting it is they're going to go down a different lane. And I think in the end, it will -- it almost certainly will come up. But it's not -- I don't think it's going to be front and center based on everything they've signaled about how they're going to conduct this debate.

COSTELLO: We'll see tomorrow night. Ron Brownstein, thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

[10:20:06] On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton heads to New Hampshire today where in just a few hours she's expected to file for the New Hampshire ballot. This is the first stop in a five-city, two- day swing through the state. That is home to the nation's first presidential primary.

Clinton will also meet with the League of Conversation Voters Action Fund which will announce its endorsement of Clinton for 2016. The group says it's the first time it has ever backed a candidate before a vote was cast.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, this hour President Obama and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are meeting for the first time in more than a year. Can the visit thaw their frosty relationship?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: To Washington now and a high-profile meeting that officials say is an attempt to turn the page in U.S.-Israeli relations.

[10:25:04] In just a few minutes President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu will meet face-to-face for the first time in more than a year. This is from last year. The meeting comes in the wake of an Iranian nuclear deal that heightened tensions between the two nations.

Our senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is at the White House with more. Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Call it a reset, a repair or just an attempt to get back to issues of common ground, the prime minister of Israel is expected here at the White House shortly. Their first meeting between him and the president in 13 months.

As you know, the last time the prime minister was here in the United States, it was a very contentious period. He had a controversial speech before the United States Congress. There was a lot of disagreement over the Iran nuclear deal. Now the question is whether the United States' leader and the leader from Israel can get past the personalities, get back to business. And the reality that President Obama still has yet one more year in office.

So among the things on the agenda, we're told, Israel certainly looking for an increase in aid from the United States. The number that has been floated that now exists is around $3 billion. The question is, how much that might go up? No clear indication from senior administration officials whether that will be resolved today.

Also, there's certainly the Palestinian question that could come up as well as the Syrian crisis, which has been so much of an issue here in Washington, D.C. The watch word from the administration is to try to figure out a way to look forward and not in the rearview mirror.

So Mr. Netanyahu due here at the White House just about now to sit down and start talking with the president. He does have some other things on his agenda, including a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. Another appearance at the Center for American Progress and he's meeting with the Jewish community as well. A lot on the plate for Netanyahu today and tomorrow, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Joe Johns reporting live from the White House. Thanks so much.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

If the president of the university system is not out, we are walking out. That is the message from a group of faculty members at University of Missouri amid racial tension on campus. My next guest helped organize the walkout, that's happening in just minutes.

Associate Professor Elisa Glick is in on the phone with me now. Good morning.

ELISA GLICK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So tell me why professors have decided to walk out along with students.

GLICK: Well, I think that the time for patience has ended. We have waited for leadership to take action. We have watched while more racial incidents have occurred on campus. There have been numerous problems on campus this semester. Issues regarding academic freedom as well as students being called the N word. There's a long history on this campus but this semester in particular

has really been absolutely appalling. The morale is very low. There are deans and faculty members who have been here for 30 years and have never seen anything like this and their morale has not been lower. And we feel that it's absolutely necessary for institutional change to happen for us to move forward.

COSTELLO: Has the university president met with these students at any point?

GLICK: Yes, he has. And to some extent, that's part of the problem. He issued an apology for his behavior. There was an incident in the homecoming parade where these very brave student activists who called themselves concerned students 1950 after the first black student who was admitted to the University of Missouri, these students had a protest at the homecoming parade that -- where they surrounded Tim Wolfe's car and he did not get out of his car, didn't engage with them in any way.

There was press coverage about that. I'm sure you're aware of it and some of your viewers are as well. So he recently did issue finally an apology, but then just this past weekend had an incident with students where some students were engaging with him one-on-one about questions of racism and institutional racism, and it was a very tense exchange and culminated --

(END)